Learning Upgrade vs Ultimate Phonics Reading App
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Learning Upgrade
Master English and math with engaging songs, videos, and games. Prepare for exams like TOEFL, IELTS, and GED, or improve digital and life skills. Suitable for all learners, including those with learning difficulties.
- English language lessons
- Math skills development
- Exam preparation (GED, TOEFL, IELTS)
- Digital literacy courses
- Work and financial life skills
- Engaging songs, videos, and games
- Personalized learning path
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Learn English and math quickly and easily for success at school, college, and work. The lessons in Learning Upgrade are filled with songs, video, and games to make learning fun! Just sign up, take a placement test, and start learning today! Are you trying to learn English or overcome a learning difficulty? Do you need to take an exam like TOEFL, IELTS, or GED? Need to pass a test to get a job or enter college? You can prepare for success by working at home on your own phone, any time and anywhere! The Learning Upgrade app includes more than 1000 lessons. English Upgrade courses include lessons on phonics, decoding, vocabulary, grammar, writing, listening, and more. Math Upgrade courses include lessons on fractions, percents, statistics, word problems, geometry, algebra, and more. The GED and HiSET courses prepare students to pass the high school equivalency tests. And the TOEFL and IELTS courses prepare you to score high on key English tests. The Digital Literacy course includes lessons on content creation, messaging, data, privacy, security, and digital citizenship. Work Life Skills teaches soft skills that help you succeed at your job. Financial Literacy has lessons on personal finance, banking, small business, credit, loans, and savings. And the U.S. Citizenship course helps you prepare for the interview and test. The Learning Upgrade curriculum includes engaging songs, videos, games, and rewards that encourage all learners to achieve mastery. Each lesson provides practice problems accompanied by immediate intervention and remediation with multimedia supports. Students can repeat lessons until they master them, earning a gold certificate when they become proficient in each of the standard’s benchmarks. Learning Upgrade is used by schools and organizations around the world to help students with special needs, learning difficulties, dyslexia, reading disabilities, autism, dyscalculia, and math learning disorder. Join the over 3 million students that have enrolled in Learning Upgrade. Just install the app and click ‘Sign Up’ to begin your path to English and math success. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Ultimate Phonics Reading App
This app teaches reading and English pronunciation through a structured phonics system. It's designed for beginners, struggling readers, dyslexic individuals, adult learners, and ESL students. The program offers over 4,400 words and 2,100 sentences across 12 levels, with the first level available for free.
- Phonics-based reading instruction
- Pronunciation practice for English
- Suitable for all ages and reading levels
- Effective for dyslexia and struggling readers
- Extensive word and sentence library
- Structured lessons across 12 levels
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This app is a must-try for parents, teachers, and tutors who teach reading to students of any age. It is also excellent for self-study to improve reading and English pronunciation. Ultimate Phonics is useful in any situation where reading is taught: * Beginning Readers Did you know that many children never become good readers? Reading is the most important skill for education and success. If you have young children first learning to read, you can give them the gift that lasts a lifetime by teaching them with Ultimate Phonics. Just an hour per week can make a huge improvement in their reading ability. * Struggling Readers Do you have children or students who guess and skip when they read? Did you know that word guessing causes poor reading comprehension and terrible spelling? Relying on word guessing prevents students from becoming good readers and cripples their education. A good reader reads by rapidly and accurately sounding out new words. That is exactly what Ultimate Phonics teaches. It develops your students into more accurate, fluent readers with good reading comprehension. * Dyslexia and Orton-Gillingham Ultimate Phonics is very effective for teaching dyslexics to read. The app can be used either by itself or as a supplement for Orton-Gillingham programs or other programs designed to overcome dyslexia. If you are an Orton-Gillingham teacher, you will love this app. It has excellent word lists and decodable sentences, all broken down and sounded out. The app also has a Find feature that lets you look up lessons matching any phonogram in a matter of seconds. This app is a great supplement to any Orton-Gillingham program and is guaranteed to become a useful tool in your teaching toolkit. * Adult Literacy Adult learners love the design of the program because it teaches them to read clearly and directly, without insulting them. And tutors love Ultimate Phonics because it's easy to use and produces great results. Try it for yourself and see why Ultimate Phonics is an essential teaching tool for any adult literacy situation. * ESL and English Pronunciation ESL (English as a Second Language) students need to learn to read English at the same time they are learning to speak it. Ultimate Phonics effectively improves reading, spelling, and pronunciation for ESL students of all ages. If you are a student learning English, you can use Ultimate Phonics to help with both your reading and your pronunciation. The app breaks down thousands of words and sentences by their individual speech sounds, so you learn in detail how to pronounce words more accurately. *** CONTENT The complete program consists of more than 4,400 words and 2,100 sentences organized into 262 lessons. The lessons are grouped into 12 levels, teaching the entire phonics system of English. You get the first level (lessons 1 to 50) for free. You have the option of purchasing additional levels one at a time or purchasing all the levels at once at a discount. Here is a summary of the topics in each level: * LEVEL 1 (Lessons 1 to 50) Simple words with short vowels, single consonants, and consonant blends. * LEVEL 2 (Lessons 51 to 80) Consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ck), qu, x, ng and nk patterns, and doubled consonants. * LEVEL 3 (Lessons 81 to 106) Vowel digraphs (ee, ea, oo, ai, ay, oa, ou, ow, aw, au, oy, oi). * LEVEL 4 (Lessons 107 to 124) Endings (s, es, ed, ing, ful), apostrophes and more. * LEVEL 5 (Lessons 125 to 147) Syllables, compound words, and multi-syllable words. * LEVEL 6 (Lessons 148 to 155) Soft c and g patterns. * LEVEL 7 (Lessons 156 to 171) Long vowels in magic e syllables. * LEVEL 8 (Lessons 172 to 183) Long vowels in open syllables. * LEVEL 9 (Lessons 184 to 209) 22 more long vowel patterns. * LEVEL 10 (Lessons 210 to 225) R-controlled vowels (ar, er, ir, or, ur, and more). * LEVEL 11 (Lessons 226 to 239) 13 more short vowel patterns. * LEVEL 12 (Lessons 240 to 262) Silent letters and advanced patterns.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Ultimate Phonics Reading App at 3.8 against Learning Upgrade's 3.1. Ultimate Phonics Reading App also leads on review sentiment (46% vs 22%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). Learning Upgrade's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 9 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Learning Upgrade sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Ultimate Phonics Reading App sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Ultimate Phonics Reading App holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 29 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 22% of Learning Upgrade's written reviews are positive against 46% of Ultimate Phonics Reading App's.
Learning Upgrade ships an update every 3 months, Ultimate Phonics Reading App every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on July 4, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Learning Upgrade | Ultimate Phonics Reading App |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (21 ratings) | 3.8 (29 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 22.2% of reviews | 46.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 | 29 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 9 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 109 MB | 100 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Learning Upgrade | Brian Spencer |
Customer experience
Learning Upgrade
Ultimate Phonics Reading App
In-app purchases
Learning Upgrade
- Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- 1 Month License$7.99
- 3 Month License$19.99
- 12 Month License$59.99
Ultimate Phonics Reading App
- Level 2 (Lessons 51 to 80)$3.99
- Level 3 (Lessons 81 to 106)$3.99
- Level 4 (Lessons 107 to 124)$3.99
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- Level 5 (Lessons 125 to 147)$3.99
- Level 6 (Lessons 148 to 155)$3.99
- Level 10 (Lessons 210 to 225)$3.99
- Level 7 (Lessons 156 to 171)$3.99
- Level 8 (Lessons 172 to 183)$3.99
- Level 9 (Lessons 184 to 209)$3.99
- Levels 5-12 (Lessons 125-262)$23.99
- Levels 4-12 (Lessons 107-262)$25.99
- Levels 3-12 (Lessons 81-262)$27.99
- Levels 2-12 (Lessons 51-262)$29.99
Questions
Is Learning Upgrade free?
Is Ultimate Phonics Reading App free?
Which has better reviews, Learning Upgrade or Ultimate Phonics Reading App?
Do Learning Upgrade or Ultimate Phonics Reading App have ads?
Which is updated more often, Learning Upgrade or Ultimate Phonics Reading App?
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